Snow Show

Most of the departments in Kashmir region were caught napping during the first spell of snowfall. Summer capital, Srinagar faced water-logging crisis and commuters face massive inconvenience. The snow show always reflects the administrative inertia. Earlier, the government had announced weather advisory, Chief Engineer, Mechanical Engineering Department (MED), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar Raina has claimed that all the preparations have been done to avoid any eventuality this winter. However what needs to be seen is that will they respond to the emergencies at a right time. Their track record has seen otherwise so far. The officials have claimed that Mechanical Engineering Department, Kashmir is fully prepared for timely clearance of snow and all the preparations have been done to keep men and machinery ready to respond to emergencies during this winter. Pertinently Divisional Administration, Kashmir, has issued weather advisory according to which moderate to heavy snow is expected at most places in the State from December 11 to December 13, 2017. It said that the western disturbance is approaching J&K and adjoining areas. “This system is likely to affect J&K from 9th December onwards and produce moderate to heavy snowfall on 11, 12 and 13 December,” it had said.The Department has carried out the mock drills, other preparatory works and has directed the officials at the district and provisional level to keep all the men and machinery ready. The officials claimed that they have activated control rooms including 10 in South Kashmir, 5 in North Kashmir and 3 in Central Kashmir, also one provincial level control room which keep track of every development across the Region as far as the weather changes are concerned. According to reports the Department has prepared the ‘SnowClearance Action Plan’, under which the men and machinery is deputed on immediate basis. The “Mechanized Snow Clearance Action Plan” for the year 2017-18, covers almost all the major routes across Kashmir region. Besides; some additional roads have been incorporated in the instant plan as per the demand received from the R&B Wing of Public Works Department. During Snow Clearance Operations, it may not be possible to clear mechanically such portion of a roads whose conditions are abnormal having rough surface and the same shall have to be taken up for manual Snow Clearance by R&B Wing of Public Works Department . According to officials the Snow Clearance attachments (Blades) were procured from Germany and were fitted on the heavy duty trucks from TATA. The fleet kept on growing and at present the Department has about over 141 various types of Snow Clarence Machines, like Snow Cutters, Snowploughs, Snow Cats.